A pair of Grey Wagtails, not seen here for some time, perched on the scaffolding surrounding one of the small boathouses which is being renovated.
Birds don't usually like citrus fruit, but this Carrion Crow was happily eating a bit of a satsuma orange that a picnicker had given it.
Another crow basked in the sunshine ...
... but the familiar Coal Tit in the Flower Walk was staying in the shade of a yew tree.
The female Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery fluffed herself up after a preening session.
One of the owlets looked out from the chestnut leaves.
Neil thinks he saw the male owl here, which no one else has seen for months, though he didn't get the chance of a picture. It was shouting at him ...
... as was the male owl near the Round Pond when I went there.
He didn't like me getting too close to the nest tree, where one of the youngsters was just emerging before flying up into a horse chestnut.
Ahmet Amerikali got a good shot of him in flight.
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The Mute Swan family at the Vista fed in the shade of the bushes.
I hadn't seen the single surviving Greylag gosling for a while, but it turned up today, now a handsome teenager.
The moulting Canadas are being quite slow about regrowing their flight feathers. This is one with a speckled head which visits the park every year to moult.
Blondie had actually managed to cross the lake to the other side, unusual for this fantastically sedentary bird. I've never seen her flying.
This dragonfly in the Rose Garden is a female Black-Tailed Skimmer, much prettier than the dull blue-grey male of the species. I couldn't see what it was eating. (Incidentally, putting its name in a video got me banned from Vimeo and they ignored my request to undo the ban. Evidently they considered it a racial insult.)
Elizabeth got a pleasing picture of a Comma butterfly on a railing.
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A Hornet Hoverfly (Volucella zonaria) drank nectar from privet blossom in the Flower Walk.
There was also a Tree Bumblebee.
Another interesting picture from Duncan Campbell. This bee on the eryngium at the back of the Lido is probably a Yellow-Legged Mining Bee (Andrena flavipes).
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I see the male Little Owl is back to his reprehensible Mr Asbo behaviour. Tut tut.
ReplyDeletePerhaps that kind of orange tastes sweeter than ordinary ones
Where does Blondie go to when she disappears from the Park?
Tinúviel
Yes, satsumas and mandarins and tangerines are sweeter and less acidic than ordinary sweet oranges.
DeleteThere have been sightings of what is thought to be Blondie in other parks, but on the basis of a photograph one can't rule out other ultra-blonde Egyptians. She may have been here all the time. It's possible not to notice an individual, even a distinctive one, in the middle of tens or hundreds of others, for a long time -- as witness my sighting today of the young Greylag which I hadn't noticed for months.
Lovely flight shot of the Little Owl. I disturbed a couple when I arrived at Warren Farm yesterday to lead a wildflower walk at Warren Farm. Somebody had 6 in a tree across the road!
ReplyDeleteThe bumblebee is a Tree Bumblebee with that white rear end, not Common Carder.
Thanks for the correction. It's not a species I've knowingly seen before.
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